Psychic Lemon ‎– Freak Mammal

Drone Rock Records ‎(DRR030)

Freak Mammal (must mean us humans?) is the third studio album by Cambridge based space/kraut/psych rock group Psychic Lemon. It follows the splendid live album Live At The Smokehouse that the band released earlier this year. I've been a fan since I first heard the band's little more prog oriented, eponymous debut album in 2016 and have loved all releases. Psychic Lemon's brand of psych/space/krautrock is never a direct clone of any other band as they do have a direction of their own to go and I like it.

This new album released on two limited vinyl editions, CD and digital download has seven rather long instrumental tracks on it. The space party begins with the over 10-minute, hypnotic "Dark Matter". I love the heavy, modern krautrock style here. Things get pretty fuzzy and wild so this is not for the faint-hearted. The even longer "Seeds of Tranquility" is a bit more peaceful, dreamy and also very hypnotic track with repetitive bass line, psychedelic guitar and cool percussion. There's also some spacey synthesizer for a good measure of course. This long cerebral jam reminds me of some of the old White Hills stuff a bit. "Afrotropic Bomb" is a more explosive, wild thing again, for fans of The Heads and A.M.T., perhaps! Also "Free Electron Collective" is an energetic, freaky mind-blaster that works really well. "White Light" is fast, pounding & powerful space rock the way it should be. Mugstar at their best comes to mind, wow! Another killer album by this great band. I hope I get to see them live one of these days.

www.facebook.com/psychiclemon